One in ten London callers to be denied an Ambulance as service misses targets

London’s Ambulance Service is to refuse to send emergency crews to around one in ten calls each week in a bid to improve its poor response times.

There are currently around 35,000 weekly requests for an ambulance and service bosses say demand is increasing by around 10% each year.

Government targets require that 75 per cent of category A patients – those in the most need – are reached within 8 minutes but the capital’s service is meeting this target in just 64 per cent of cases.

To help boost performance, LAS bosses will refuse to send an ambulance to anyone who operators deem not to be suffering from a serious or life-threatening condition.

Instead of receiving an ambulance, around 3,500 patients each week will be referred to NHS 111 or given clinical advice by phone.

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